[links] Link salad was there in silver underwear

Alpha Centauri Bb: An Interstellar Target?

Engine in development could cut Mars travel time to three months — Fusion reactor would use deuterium and lithium-6 crystals. (Via David Goldman.)

Genome Hunters Go after Martian DNA — J. Craig Venter may have just started a race to discover alien life on the Red Planet. Really? There's some deep embedded assumptions here.

Huge Moon-Forming Collision Theory Gets New Spin

Britain has alien-war weapons, says former government adviser — Um, ok. (Via Cora Buhlert.)

My son is schizophrenic. The ‘reforms’ that I worked for have worsened his life. — Sigh. (Via Lisa Costello.)

Death row inmate walks free due to DNA evidence — Thibodeaux is the 18th death row inmate released due to DNA evidence in the United States, according to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC). The first was Kirk Bloodsworth, who was freed in 1993 after being wrongfully convicted of the rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl. “It takes a long time to find these cases,” DPIC executive director Richard Dieter told AFP. “If executions are rushed and accelerated then we are going to miss these cases,” he added. “It underscores the fundamental problems that the death penalty could actually kill innocent people.” Not could. Does. What if it was you in that cell, wrongfully convicted and waiting to die? Do you have any idea how many prosecutors fight DNA evidence appeals, and how many courts deny them? Feel safer now? (Via Slacktivist Fred Clark.)

Calvin & Hobbes pegs the contemporary conservative movement — Well, except for the last panel.

Two Canadians Discover the US has become a Police State

2012's Incredible Disappearing Issue: Climate Change — The planet, quite simply, is dying of a fever, and everybody can see the symptoms, and everybody who isn't Jim Inhofe or some other mountain troll knows precisely what the cause is. But not even this president, for all his besotted devotion to green technologies, can talk straight to the American people about what is murdering the earth and why.

Mitt Romney's Tax Proposals: Understanding the Debate — You know. Math. That thing it would take Paul Ryan too long to explain.

Five things we learned from Tuesday's debate

Chick-fil-A Biblical Family of the Day — Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy: “We support biblical families.” Today’s Chick-fil-A Biblical Family of the Day: Joseph and his brothers (Genesis 37:18-28) Mmm, Bible-based values. Just what America needs! Then I can sell my brother for fun and profit, too.

Would More “Confidence” in Ideology Be Helping the GOP Ticket? — Conservative commentator Daniel Larison on R. Money, the GOP ticket and the debates.

Tagg Romney wanted to “take a swing” at Obama during debate — RADIO HOST: I’m gonna ask something I know a lot of people want to know, or at least I do. What it is like for you to hear the President of the United States call your dad a liar. How do you react to that? TAGG ROMNEY: Uh, you know, uh, well, jump out of your seat, and you want to rush down there to the debate stage and take a swing at him. Or how about this, Tagg? Your dad could stop lying! Then no one would need to call him a liar! Nah, too easy. That would require acknowledging "facts" and "evidence" and "truth", which would make both Tagg and Mittens too liberal. Ta-Nehisi Coates points out this also has a significant racial angle. Which, being white myself, completely escaped me until he said it.

Romney Is Attacked by His Father’s Longtime Aide — A longtime aide to George W. Romney issued a harshly worded critique of Mitt Romney, accusing him of shifting political positions in “erratic and startling ways” and failing to live up to the distinguished record of his father, the former governor of Michigan. Come on, give Mittens a break! It's kind of hard to have intellectual or moral consistency in the GOP's post-truth, Etch-a-Sketch world. (Via shsilver.)

Portman will reject your reality and substitute his own — This is genuinely remarkable. Ryan was caught presenting a false claim to the nation, and asked to explain why, one of the Romney campaign's leading surrogates told a national television audience, in effect, "The lie is accurate." When the book is written on the evolution of post-truth politics, this anecdote should be in the first chapter. Welcome to conservative America. When you can't get elected on the basis of your ideas, lie. Fast and furiously and loudly.

Abortion: As Mitt Romney Moves To The Middle, Anti-Abortion Activists Try To Cover His Right Flank — Or in other words, bearing false witness. Which is remarkably easy to do for Christianists who claim so loudly to hew to the literal word of God. Must be a lot of Bibles out there in Evangelical America with no Ninth Commandment.

Romney Obscures Opposition To Obama Contraception Coverage Mandate — At the debate, Romney tried to make it appear as if he opposed the Blunt amendment. But that’s not true. A Republican. Lying about contraception in front of undecided votes on national television. What a shock. Conservative policies are unpopular with everyone, even conservatives when applied to them personally. Once more, when you can't win on ideas, run a post-truth campaign. Sensing a theme here?

?otD: But who was the invisible man?

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10/18/2012
Writing time yesterday: 1.25 hours (rWRPA)
Body movement: 0.5 hours (stationary bicycling)
Hours slept: 7.5 (solid)
Weight: 224.2
Currently reading: n/a